1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fastening lever for sports shoes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Several types of lever are currently known which have the main function of allowing to fasten two flaps of a shoe, such as for example a ski boot, a roller skate or ice skate, or a mountain boot.
Levers are known which include a support constituted by a plate rigidly coupled at a flap of the shoe from which two wings protrude laterally. The end of a lever arm is pivoted to the ends of the wings, and a connecting member for a metal wire or string is pivoted to the lever arm approximately in a middle region. The metal wire or string is connected to a tooth and the tooth or metal wire interacts with, or selected engages at, one of a plurality of teeth which protrude from a rack which is rigidly coupled to the other flap to be joined.
In these conventional types of lever, the user closes the boot by presetting the mutual connection between the rack and the metal wire or tooth and by then rotating the lever arm by gripping its free end.
Such closure operation is awkward, because the user must exert a considerable effort because the flaps to be joined can be constituted by plastic flaps which are stiff and between which a certain friction is produced, because when fastening the flaps it is necessary to compress an innerboot which surrounds the leg or foot of the user, and because the length of the lever arm is short with respect to the pivoting point of the connecting member.
All this is worsened by the fact that the user usually wears gloves and therefore is unable to achieve a good hold on the lever arm.
If instead the user were to perform closure without wearing gloves, he would be certainly hindered in this maneuver, because the lever, if made of metal, would be difficult to grip at the low temperatures at which the shoe is used, and by having a limited grip surface might escape from the grip of the user, who might even injure himself.
Finally, it is noted that the lever arm, if it has to fasten the quarter of a boot or skate, is usually arranged laterally to the leg and therefore forces the user to perform an additional effort with respect to the force that might be performed to close the lever for example in the toe region.